Category: Food + Drink

Top 100 Wines: Meet & Greet Martha McClellan

Open for a little more than a year, Hamel Family Wines is one of Sonoma’s most stylish — and ambitious — wineries. Evidence of that ambition? Owners George and Pam Hamel brought in Martha McClellan, one of Napa Valley’s most accomplished winemakers, to work with their winemaker son, John B. Hamel II, and their estate-grown […]

Top 100 Wines: Joe Benziger

Cinsault , Lagrein, Mourvedre, Tannat, Teroldego … not your everyday grape varieties in Sonoma, but they’re a big part of Joe Benziger’s life. As winemaker at Imagery Estate Winery, Benziger never met a wine grape he didn’t like. Sure, he produces more recognizable wines, too, such as Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Gris, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, […]

Healdsburg Author Gives Christmas Trees Flight

To Carrie Brown, a Christmas tree is like a mannequin to a great designer — a naked shape just begging to be dressed. Every Christmas for more than 20 years, the owner of the rustic and retro Jimtown Store on the outskirts of Healdsburg “concocts new flights of fancy” with her own tree. “I love […]

Top 100 Wines: Syrah & Petite Sirah

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Francis Ford Coppola Winery 2012 Francis Coppola Reserve Wallace Creek Vineyard Dry Creek Valley Syrah $38 Its deep purple color signals the dark, luscious plum, blackberry and black raspberry aromas and flavors. This powerful, flamboyant wine gets its complexity from subtle notes of black pepper, black tea, licorice and spicy oak. (LM) Graton Ridge Cellars […]

Fernet Francisco: Sonoma is Falling in Love

Ben Flajnik has a new love, and her name is Fernet. For those out of the reality TV loop, Flajnik was the season 16 star of “The Bachelor,” which in 2012 brought national attention to Envolve Winery, the Sonoma brand he co-founded. Flajnik has since moved on from his chosen “Bachelor” mate and the winery […]